“I wondered if I did it or not,” Rachel explained. “What do you mean you wondered if you had done it or not?” The balaniot attending the workshop asked. It is hard to imagine, for people who haven’t dealt with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), how a woman could arrive at the mikveh, do the preparations, immerse in the mikveh, hear the balanit say “kasher” and be unsure she had done it. Rachel clarified: she knew she had just gone, physically, to the mikveh, but she left tormented by the idea that perhaps she had done something wrong and it didn’t count. She explained the type of torture she went through each time she went to the mikveh: “Thoughts kept coming in…driving me crazy….Did I wash my ears? Did I check my nails? Maybe I touched something after I checked…maybe the balanit didn’t notice?! What if she didn’t? Am I kosher?!!! Every time I calmed myself down by explaining to myself why I was Kosher another thought came in.” These thoughts consumed her in the mikveh and as she went home. [Read more…]

Wednesday night, October 23^rd, Einat Kapach, a director and teacher at the Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts (http://www.maale.co.il/), will be leading a public program that explores the portrayal of mikveh in a range of Israeli films. Kapach has chosen a group of films that tell stories about Jewish women’s lives, to be followed by a group discussion. By presenting the intimate topics oftaharat hamishpacha and mikveh on the screen, the creators of the films seek to raise questions and start discussions about the role of halacha in daily life, both mundane and extraordinary. The films will bring to the fore questions about the spiritual meaning of mikveh, the role of mikveh in the relationships between husbands and wives, and new movements for the renewal of mikveh use. Come join us as we consider these powerful narratives and reflect on some of our society’s most important issues.

To wet your appetite, check out this film clip portraying a couple’s relationship as the wife prepares to go to the mikveh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YATzWG8-KnA